>>>>>>>>Because many of them don't have such an ID (turns out about 10% of PA voters have neither a drivers license nor the state-provided non-drivers photo ID). Getting such an ID can be expensive (both in actual costs and in work hours lost), difficult and time-consuming.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>And why should a person who has voted at the same polling place for decades, and is known to the poll workers (who are, of course, her neighbors), now need a photo ID?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Tamar
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I see. Everyone has an id card in Belgium so that's not a problem.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Belgium is an almost entirely white nation. That is the ugly, ugly elephant in the room.
>>>>>
>>>>>So people aren't equal, is that what you are saying Mike? Seems pretty racist to me.
>>>>
>>>>What I am saying, which should be evident, is that people are not equal in everyone's opinion.
>>>>
>>>>Here is a total change of subject where we can hopefully steer clear of political vitriol. Why is the all star break four days this year?
>>>
>>>Dunno. I haven't paid any attention to MLB. I've got my hands full with my little league team - our tournament starts Saturday.
>>>
>>>Double elimination - the way the guys have been playing, we're done on Sunday.. :(
>>
>>Tell us more about your Little League team. Sounds like you are a coach? Do you have any relatives on the team? IAC, good for you.
>
>I've been the coach or assistant since my son started T-Ball. He's 12 now so this is a 12-14year old boys team and I'm the coach.
>
>Our season record was an absolutely dismal 2 and 10, with one of the wins resulting from a forfeit.
>
>Maybe next year.. :(
>

If they had fun and learned something about baseball and teamwork, it was not a dismal season. One of the things I liked most about AYSO (American Youth Soccer Association), which is the biggest kids' soccer group in the country, was that there were no standings. As referees we kept track of scores and penalties on cards that were turned in, but no one kept standings. The main purpose was to form balanced teams the next year. The motto was "safe, fun, and fair." I am as interested as the next guy in how my professional teams do but do not extend that to youth sports. They are still learning the world and their place in it and do not need the unrequited dreams of adults projected on them.

You probably know more about baseball than I do about soccer. It was more or less an unknown sport when and where I grew up. I played everything else. When I had kids of my own, and after a couple of seasons of always being at practice, Emily's coach asked if I would be his assistant coach. The team was co-ed, two girls and 10 uncontrollable boys. My basic task was to help keep order and keep them in line. From there it went on to being a head coach for 3 or 4 years. When Emily aged up to U-12 I stepped aside. At that age they need a coach who knows the techniques of capturing the ball with their thigh and taking off with it, heading a ball, and so on, and it would have been a tale told by an idiot coming from me.

Not sure what my point is here but Emily's one female teammate in U-8 was an African-American girl named Phyllis. As one of the dads said, she runs like an effing gazelle. That was undoubtedly genetic because her dad was from Nigeria and her mom was from Jamaica and they met on the track team at Drake. Phyllis and her two older siblings both played collegiate sports as well. She stayed at our house a few nights. Sleepovers, the lingua franca of parents of the 90s. It's funny remembering how she looked in the mornings. She let her hair out at night and in the morning it looked like she had stuck her finger in an electrical socket.